KHAN YOUNIS: Internet and telephone services collapsed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday for lack of fuel, the main Palestinian provider said, bringing a potentially long-term blackout of communications as Israel signaled its offensive against Hamas could next target the south, where most of the population has taken refuge.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry about efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians in urgent need, the State Department said on Thursday.
Blinken reaffirmed the importance of concrete steps to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians in all of Gaza and reaffirmed Washington’s rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians, the department said in a statement.
GAZA: Images released by Israel of weapons it says it soldiers found inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are not sufficient to justify revoking the hospital’s status as protected by the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
“Hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law. Doctors, nurses, ambulances and other hospital staff must be permitted to do their work and patients must be protected,” Human Rights Watch UN Director Louis Charbonneau told Reuters.